Chavez's health has deteriorated: minister

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez smiles in between his daughters, Rosa Virginia (R) and Maria while recovering from cancer surgery in Havana in this photograph released by the Ministry of Information, in this Feb 15, 2013 file photo. [Photo/Agencies]

CARACAS - Venezuelan Communication and Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said Monday night that President Hugo Chavez's health has deteriorated and remains delicate.

Villegas announced on Venezuela's national TV broadcaster VTV that a "worsening of respiratory function" had happened to the president, which was motivated by clinical immune depression.

The minister said that the president "has a new and severe respiratory infection" and stressed that the general health state of Chavez continues to be "very delicate" as he is undergoing chemotherapy with high impact and other complementary treatments.

The president remains clinging to life, aware of the difficulties he is facing in strict compliance with the program designed by the medical team, Villegas said.

Villegas said the government always accompanies the family of Chavez "in this battle full of love and spirituality". He called on the Venezuelan people to keep on fighting without being affected by the psychological warfare deployed by foreign enemies, which seek to generate violence as a pretext for foreign intervention in Venezuela.

"The Bolivarian government denounces the pharisaical attitude of those historical enemies of Hugo Chavez, who always have lavished hatred, insults and contempt, and now seek to use their health situation as an excuse to destabilize the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela," he said.

Vice-President Nicolas Maduro said last Friday that Chavez is "fighting for his life".

The 58-year-old Chavez has been in power for 14 years. Last October, he was re-elected to a third six-year term, but could not be sworn in as scheduled on January 10 due to his serious health problems.

After seeking medical treatment for 70 days in Cuba, he returned home on February 18. Since then, he has stayed in the military hospital Doctor Carlos Arvelo in Caracas.

However, he has been unable to appear before the public since his return, except in a number of pictures published by the government which were taken in Cuba and showed he was lying in bed in the company of his two daughters.